Concentration lapse while driving - Share yours

This is a discussion on Concentration lapse while driving - Share yours within Drive Safe, part of the Road Safety category; Originally Posted by AKB
But when the time is 5-6 am, I am afraid to drive back as not matter ...

But when the time is 5-6 am, I am afraid to drive back as not matter what I try, I would not even recognise that I had a mini nap till the time I wake up and discover I am still driving !!!
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He thinks he is in control but sadly he is not and saddest part is that he doesn't know that he isn't .
~Amit

I personally find stopping the car and taking a power nap is a good way of refreshing yourself when sleepy. But that is not safe on the GGN-FBD hilly road, I guess.

The second time it happened was on Inner ring road opposite Dell office. I was closely following an Indica until it decided to break hard and i was slow in stopping in the process rear ended him. Needed headlight, bonnet, radiator work, and tought me a important lesson to maintain safe distance between the car in the front and myself.

Met with a very similar incident 4 years back, my one and only accident till now.Was driving our good old M800 from Calicut to Thrissur after a sleepless night.Was feeling little bit sleepy, to get over it started giving a chase to an Indica.after an hour or so I found myself giving a sharp kiss to the Indica in front . He had slammed his brakes hard to avoid a Scorpio in front and by the time I realised it, it was too late.Fortunately, the Indica was not badly injured, even though the M800 lost its indicators and one headlight. Lesson learnt - Never stretch yourself while driving, not even for the heck of it.

I guess everyone has had some bad experience or the other due to our own negligence. This happened to me while I was in Delhi:-

I was going to a relatives place (it was a Santro borrowed from my friend ) and found out that I had entered the wrong street and since the street was narrow was looking for some sort of space where I could reverse. Vehicles were parked on the LHS of the road and I saw an opening between 2 cars although I was a bit surprised that this space was vacant. So I tried to use that space to reverse and BANG!! I hit a concrete block which was about 2 ft high which one cannot see while reversing :( There was a dent smack in the middle of the rear door and was poorer by about 6K post the repairs.

After years of driving now i have identified my limitations , i kind of get drowsy around 2Pm , 7pm , 10pm , 2am , 4 am . around this time i ll be a bit more careful or take a power nap and hand over the steering to someone i trust behind wheels. No stunts ha ha. it once happened so that during one of my drives to kerela , i was behind wheels for 12 hrs and it was about 10pm when a momentry lapse of concentration , eyes shut for a second and i opened on the opposite side right in front of a car with just enough time to turn to my lane. luck , but seen to it mistake has not been repeated.

Last weekend we did a 24Hr trip to Tirupathi, started at 3 in the night to reach the temple at 8 in the morning to have a chance at getting in and out as quickly as possible, started back from Tirupathi at 1 in the afternoon to reach bangalore around 5pm. While on our way back when nearing bangalore i felt very sleepy, i knew that everyone else was also tired and hence sleepy kept washing my face and kept driving slowly (@ Speeds below 80 and sometimes 60). Wife noticed it and because she had some sleep she took the wheels.

Finally reached home safely, moral of the story, dont start so early in the morning so as the last night sleep isnt completed. Next time we do this we will start in the afternoon and stay overnight to do a next morning darshan and return.

Between Kushalanagar and Madikeri Road in 2008, around 6 PM I think. The road was notorious at that time with lots of deep , big pathholes, uneven surface, deep footpaths and what not. Not so bright No so Dark kind of situation added to it was trees on both side.

I was trying to overtake a Sumo Cab who wouldn't let me pass for past 10 Minutes. I knew after a couple of tight turns, the road would straigthen up for about 1 KM. (I used to drive down every Friday from Bangalore to Madikeri to see me new born Son)

So I was right behind the sumo a bit towards on the right, may be my right right wheel was on the centre of the road. After the couple of turns I tried to overtake but saw a Honda Civic on the opposite side.

Honda Civic guy flashed his headlight twice, there was enough space for him to pass, but he flashed the headlight again when he got close. I just kept going in the sameline at around 70 KMPH, as the honda civic was right next to me, I heard a big thud.

Saw in my rear view mirror the honda civic pull to its left and stop. So even I stopped and went back, only to see the left front tyre puncture on Honda Civic, a bit bent rim and the damage on the bumper.

What had happened is there was a big deep pathhole on his left side and the foot was around 1 1/2 feet froom the road. Since I was on the right side a bit, he panicked a bit and ran over the dump and lost control and went on to the footpath. Some had put a big stone in the pathhole

Due to the speed of honda civic and low GC, there was a puncture, bent rim and damage to bumper.

I felt very sorry and looked like a fool when I apolozied to the gentleman since they were surprised and were wondering why I am apolozing.

Mine is a unique story - every time i tell this to a acquaintance, i get a response like 'either you are incredibly stupid or incredibly brave'

I was coming back from Shirdi - it was already 7 p.m, the delay was because 70 % my bulls rear spokes had broken off and mending them took a long time.

I asked my friend - who was with me, should we continue to Mumbai from shirdi at 7 p.m, the decision was left to me - and I said 'the only way ahead is ahead'. We started off @ 7.00 p.m.

I already had done Mumbai - Shirdi - Shignapur and back the same day - the journey had begun @ 4.00 a.m so by the time it was around 9.00 p.m my battery was kinda weaning off.

We labored on - the regular chai breaks we helping, but the constant sweet firing of my bullet and the wind on my face was making me sleepy and the inevitable happened.

I went off to sleep on my bullet and my friend has no clue about it, the bull was running at a constant 30 kmph i guess, when the road turned and as I was sleeping on the bull - we ran off the road.

There was no serious damage other than the bull fell on the right side - trapping my right legs calf under its exhaust, now all you bull riders know how hot the bull exhaust is after around 3 hrs of riding.

I had a concentration lapse, while returning from office on Thursday. I was late and really tired. While returning, I received a call on the phone. Now, normally I don't take phone calls while driving. But that day I pulled over to the side of the road, and switched off the car. Then as a habit, put the car in neutral, but forgot to put on the hand brake.

And while taking the phone call, I suddenly wondered why the rickshaw in front of me was coming in reverse . Then suddenly it struck me hard, and I was jolted out of the trance, it was not the rickshaw which was coming in reverse, but me who was rolling forward towards the rickshaw, because I had forgotten to put the handbrake and the car was going forward.

Scary for a few moments because I stopped a few feet from the rickshaw just in time

I follow this golden rule of thumb: after a couple of yawns, I pull over my car on a safe spot like a toll plaza, petrol pump, well-lit vacant space away from the road, take a power nap for half-hour and continue the drive. After every power nap, I feel totally refreshed for another few hours.

I always feel that the lapse is high during the time when the day breaks and similarly when the sun goes down. It's this time of the day where I have seen quite a few accidents happen.
Whenever I drive during this time I tend to b on lower speeds of 60 and also stick to the lane , I let other vehicles overtake as well.

We did 1400Kms drive straight two weeks ago and it took us 20hrs straight from start to finish including lunch, dinner, nature calls stops.

What helped me even to attempt such a feat were 1. we were two drivers (me and my wife) and 2. My fitness levels. At the end of 20hrs drive (all this while i had not slept even for 30 mins) i was terribly tired and dizzy, but by that time i was within bangalore city limits so keeping eyes open was not a big problem.

There is another thing that helped me is constant talking to my wife or my brother in law sitting next to me.

When I did Bangalore-Thane-Surat with my parents last October as a lone drive a couple of things really helped in ensuring that we remained almost fresh till the end of the journey at 11-30pm (having started at 4-30am from Bangalore). We had done it in my humble Wagon-R then.

We took a 1H20M breakfast break before Hubli at my friend's farmhouse and though we kept looking at the watch for losing on time, we could still make it to Pune at 3-30pm with two more 10min breaks for refuelling and At McDonalds in Kolhapur.

We had to offload a luggage for my sister in Pune and hence we spent 1 hour (including a late lunch here) where we even stretched our legs for a good 30 minutes before starting off towards Surat again at 4-30pm.

We refuelled once more on the expressway and crossed Vashi till Ghorbunder Junction between 5-30pm and 7-45pm.

Further to this, we stopped at Charoti for dinner and spent 45minutes. Washed my face and continued all the way till Surat.

This is the only drive I remember where I felt fresh despite of driving 1250kms in a day passing peak hour Mumbai traffic. All worked well because of those long breaks we took.

In fact, with all the preparations the previous day, I forgot to charge my MP3 Player and we were "Music less" all the way for the entire journey!!